


Tales of Twins

by KeJae



Category: Chuck (TV), White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 20:46:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4536747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeJae/pseuds/KeJae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a series of one shots depicting the twins Neal (Danny) and Noah (Bryce). It is inspired by Quinis and her stories.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Personality Switch

*******

The people who knew them growing up, wouldn’t recognize them. After all, they had switched personalities… or had they?

*******

Danny was the serious one. It was his life goal to be a cop someday, to carry on the family name by being the hero his father once was. In order to achieve that, he worked very hard. Ellen was a great source of information and she trained him as much as she could. For the rest, Danny studied and practiced heavily with a determination that belied his age. When graduation was looming on the horizon, he had a four point oh grade average, an impressive collection of volunteer work, and a solid reputation that made others believe he would be a great cop.

Bryce, he didn’t have a care in the world. Life was about doing well in school so that he could play his video games in peace, or simply read his comic books without anyone telling him he needed to get his homework done. His time was spent learning Klingon, running, and studying programing so that he could learn how to make his own games someday.

Then things changed.

*******

At eighteen, Ellen requested for the boys to come to her place for an evening, she had something to discuss with them. No one expected what was to come of it.

Danny took off out the door like his life depended on it, the responsible boy ran away.

Bryce stayed quietly in shock as he thought through the implications, the gamer thought about the future.

*******

Standing in the middle of the White Collar office, the twins stood face to face for the first time since that night.

If you closed your eyes you could see them silently circling each other as they looked for the clues of how the last decade had treated them and what kind of men they had become. With your eyes open, you watched two men stand awkwardly in front of each other with no idea how to react to each other.

Neal was guilty, he knew he shouldn’t have simply run away without saying anything to Bryce. It was wrong and he had hurt his brother in a way he had once promised not to do. He wasn’t surprised that Bryce wasn’t speaking to him.

Bryce was trapped in a kaleidoscope of feelings. He was so relieved that his brother was okay that he simply wanted to hug him, yet he was so angry that there were no words to express his emotions. His brother had left him without saying goodbye, left him wondering if he was even alive. There was too much to say, so he didn’t say anything at all.

It was Peter who relieved the awkwardness, or at least tried. He pulled the twins up to his office and directed them to talk.

He quickly regretted it.

Raising his voice above the yelling, Peter directed the boys to take turns, starting with Neal.

*******

_“I left that night, and found myself running away as fast as I could go._

_For fifteen years I had worked to become a hero like dad with everything that I had… only to discover that he wasn’t a hero at all. It was devastating, and I didn’t know what to do, so I simply put distance between myself and my problem._

_Time past, and being a young run away on the streets, I needed to find a way to get by._

_It was surprisingly easy to take the skills that I had been learning and redirect my uses of them. Turn skills for chasing a criminal into skills for evading the police, painting into forging, having a light touch for pickpocketing, and so on. Eventually, it became addicting and I was hooked on the adrenaline high that came with pulling off a successful crime._

_I may have left home that night, but nothing was truly left behind, no matter how much I may wish otherwise. What I mean is… I wanted to leave behind the past of being the son of James Bennett, but no matter where I went, I found myself still feeling like I was tainted._

_Then I decided to begin working my way up in the criminal world. As Neal Caffrey, I can recreate myself to suit any situation and pretend that I am anyone that I want to be. For a few hours, I can leave those tainted feelings behind because I am someone else._

_In New York I found myself picking up a mentor who taught me to take my skills to a whole new level. Unfortunately, funding those lessons also put me on the FBI’s radar and led to Agent Peter Burke here being assigned to my case._

_For three years, we played cat and mouse on an International scale in a battle of wits. To finish the game, Peter was intelligent, he used Kate’s location to lure me into his trap._

_Then I gave up. I wanted to see Kate again and I was tired of running, always looking over my shoulder to see if my past had caught up to me._

_He ensured that I faced the justice system to receive the consequences for my actions. The jury gave me a four year sentence in maximum security and I served my time… mostly. With four months left, Kate broke up with me as she was being threatened, so I escaped._

_Peter caught me again and I got another four year sentence as punishment. We had a meeting a week later where I presented my request for a deal. He took a while, but eventually he agreed to take me on as his CI._

_This is where I have been for the last few years. Working as a consultant for the FBI, residing in the apartment provided by the lovely June Ellington, and simply living as a citizen with a sordid past that can be used for good._

_*******_

As Neal finished telling his story, he could see that Bryce wasn’t entirely going along with it. There was a stony look on his face and it was obvious that he was still angry.

“You were always the one who told me that there was a way to handle problems by solving them. That I shouldn’t always be trying to run away or hiding from them in a comic book. Then you become a hypocrite and run away to hide behind a con man’s mask. Which, by the way, is also hypocritical of the way you were always standing for justice and ‘doing the right thing’ growing up.” There was a seething fury held in behind his words but it escaped in the context and clenched jaws of his expression.

Neal sighed. He couldn’t tell the truth to either of them. There was just too much at stake at the moment. Perhaps he would be able to, before the lies drove the people that he cared about away.

Peter was curious of the whole story, but the contradictions that Bryce pointed out bothered him too.

It was obvious that Neal couldn’t entirely explain the situation, so Peter nodded for Bryce to share his story.

*******

_That night changed my life._

_For the first time in my life my older brother left me and I was the man of the house. It was my responsibility to make sure that mom was taken care of when she was more focused inwards than outwards, I had school to finish, and I had Ellen to console when she feared that she had driven you away._

_When graduation came, I went to college at Stanford and earned a degree in Engineering. After graduation I went to work in the world and have been taking care of myself just fine._

_*******_

Neal simply rolled his eyes. “That’s why you leave out the whole ‘getting your best friend kicked out for cheating’ and supposedly getting ‘shot to death’ in a bank while working a late night as an accountant. You aren’t an accountant or dead, and your friend didn’t cheat. So you can criticize me all you want about my life choices not adding up to my childhood perspective because you aren’t being entirely honest about yourself either.”

Bryce was mystified. “H-how do you know about that?”

“Despite appearances, I didn’t entirely leave you behind. Things happened and I couldn’t go home again, so I watched from a distance.” Neal tried to play off his protectiveness as not being a big deal, but Bryce felt like maybe the brother he knew, was still standing in front of him.

It was like Peter wasn’t in the room anymore. He simply stood off to the side and quietly watched the brothers talk while taking in as many details for his own personal knowledge as possible.

The conversation was a start, but the brothers were still hiding so much that nothing was fully resolved.

Until another case another day revealed the truth.

*******

No one in the White Collar team expected the case to be anything more than a simple forgery ring. Then they got word that the CIA was sending over a representative that they thought might be able to work well with them in order to prevent the spreading of top secret information via the forger’s art.

You could hear a pin drop when the conference room full of agents and Neal turned around at the entrance of their CIA contact only to discover Bryce standing in a G-man suit with a gun and badge visible. Surprisingly, Neal just seemed to be mentally filling in some gaps and acted like his brother being a secret agent wasn’t something unexpected. It was just the rest of the office that didn’t know what to do with a Neal-look-a-like sporting a gun.

The case progressed smoother than expected while the team worked as normal with the addition of Bryce to Peter and Neal’s usual partnership.

Peter kept trying to get the brothers to reconnect when he wasn’t trying to solve the case. Neal took everything in stride, but was watchful of both their backs with a protectiveness that Peter had never experienced before. Finally, Bryce kept throwing confused sideways glances at his brother.

Neal was always the protective big brother who watched out for his family. He never complained about Bryce’s easy going dream to be a game designer, it was something he perceived as being safe. That was what had Bryce concerned. Based on what he had revealed, Neal should be worried, asking questions, demanding answers he couldn’t give, trying to persuade him to get another career… but he wasn’t, and that was out of character. Perhaps it was a result of the other changes? After all, Neal was often smiling and acting like life was just a big game, which was Bryce’s norm, not Neal’s.

Meanwhile, Neal was reflecting on how Bryce wasn’t entirely acting in his character. He gave up his dream to be a game designer with his best friend, he was determined to be an agent in an especially dangerous division, and he was not afraid to face the consequences of his actions… This wasn’t what he expected from the kid who once lived for the idea of designing games with a good friend and who wasn’t above running away from his problems.

Then the case took a dangerous twist.

It was just Peter, Neal, and Bryce looking into a location to see if it was worth the effort to get a warrant. What they didn’t expect was for the whole building to go into a lock down leaving the three of them trapped and in danger.

Suddenly they were rushed by a gang of men who thought they were going to win a fight against three men. Needless to say, they were all surprised.

Barking out orders like a practiced drill sergeant, Neal organized the three of them into a defensive triangle. Covering each other’s backs, the three of them pulled out their fighting skill and defeated their foes with ease.

When the case was closed, Neal shrugged at their inquiries saying there was more to the story. In response, Peter and Bryce hauled Neal off to do some explaining.

*******

_“I left home that night and went for a walk._

_What I didn’t expect was for a black van to pull up and men jump out to grab me a few blocks later.”_

There was a gasp from the two listeners as they hadn’t imagined a scenario like this before. He ignored them and continued with the story.

_“For weeks I was locked up in a basement room with no way out. The walls were solid cement with no windows, vents welded shut, and the door wasn’t anything more than heavy wood with a crack around its edges. There was no way out and nothing inside but a bed and basic bathroom._

_When they took me out of the room, they bound my hands with shackles so that I couldn’t pick the cuffs, I did the first time they interrogated me. Once we entered the room, they attached the chains to the wall and…”_

He paused again and shivered not wanting to continue to go into details. Still, he needed to get this out because his brother and friend needed to know.

_“Anyway, they tried to make me talk about dad. Fortunately I didn’t know anything to tell so it was easy to keep my mouth shut. Then they tried to get me to share information about the rest of the family, including Ellen. They were surprised that I was so determined to not say anything that they couldn’t make me._

_Eventually, their other activities caught up to them and an NSA agent infiltrated their group. After he figured out what they were doing to me, who I was, and the efforts I had made to either resist their interrogation or escape… he rescued me and recruited me to the NSA._

_From there I continued to train, learned how to watch over the family from a distance, and I became a field agent. My main alias is Neal Caffrey. For the FBI I am working to catch crooked cops, mostly in connection to our father’s cohorts. With the NSA, Caffrey is a cover for International missions. People spend so much time looking at the shiny conman that they miss the agent hidden behind, and that’s the point.”_

_*******_

Bryce was quiet as he contemplated what his brother was actually going through while he sat at home hating him for running away. He didn’t know what to say, so again, he said nothing. Wrapping his arms around his brother, he let his actions speak for him. The hug said ‘I’m sorry you had to go through that, I’m sorry I doubted you, thank you for all you have done…’ Then he chuckled a little bit. “So you turned out to be quite the hero after all, just not in the way that we originally imagined. Also, no wonder you weren’t giving me a hard time for being a secret agent… that would be hypocritical of you.” He was relieved and impressed. His brother was a secret agent too.

Peter was upset to hear about what Neal had gone through. It wasn’t a past that you wanted your best friend to go through, yet alone go through alone at such a young age. Then he was somewhat suspicious. How could he be an agent and play a conman?

Seeing Peter wonder about the agent part, Neal pulled out his badge and passed it to Peter to verify.

He called in Agent Danny Larkin and was surprised that it came through as being a legitimate task force agent ID.

Once the initial shock wore off, Peter and Bryce were both relieved and amused. Peter may have been a little bit annoyed too, but he tried not to let it show. After all, it wasn’t bad news to learn his friend was in deep cover, it was just annoying to learn that he had missed all of the signs for nearly a decade.

The evening was carried back to the Burke’s home where they enjoyed some of El’s cooking and general friendly banter. Bryce became an extended member of their odd little family while Neal became a closer member with the truth in the open.

*******

It turned out that the twins hadn’t changed so much as they had thought.

Neal was still serious about being a cop, only now he was a secret agent. No one was going to hurt his little brother without risking his wrath and his friends could finally let go and trust him without worry.

Bryce still didn’t have a direction, he was simply working one mission after the other and life was still just a big game, only now it was full of cloak and dagger deception. Eventually, he would pick back up his friendship with Chuck again. His only goals were to work with his brother and best friend.


	2. Pool Party

*******

It had been a few years since it happened.  Neal was in prison, Peter was working cases, and something happened to change the course of both their lives.

The case had seemed like a normal art fraud, so Peter had dug in with his Harvard crew to unwind the threads of inquiry and sort the jumbled mess of information out into a solvable case.

Somewhere along the way though, Peter was doing some late night investigating on his own when he stumbled into something big.  Trying to understand what he had found, Peter started reaching out for help which drew too much attention.  Once he had made some noise, he found himself the surprised host for the directors of the FBI, CIA, and the NSA who all personally told him to close his line of investigation, that the case was being turned over to people with the proper clearance level, and they instructed him to act like nothing had happened.

Peter knew when to back off so he obeyed the orders and the situation seemed to have melded into the past… or so he thought.

*******

Fast forwarding up a few years, Neal was instilled as the cheery CI and Peter was his ever suspicious handler.  Although the two had formed an unlikely friendship of like minded partners, they were still a convicted felon and the agent who caught him… twice.

When a new agent showed up in the office, their relationship had some friction. 

The new guy seemed determined to make his place on the team and he obviously coveted the position as the boss’s friend.  In an effort to usurp Neal’s position, he showed an interest in baseball, always had the right answer, and seemed determined to make himself appealing to the older agent.

In response, Peter did take an amount of notice.  He went to games with the agent, called on him in meetings, and chose him for some of the more interesting cases.  Still, he never fully forgot Neal so he tended to drag him along for the ride.

As it usually goes when two people are placed in direct competition, the person with precedence felt threatened, while the other endeavored to use any means necessary to take their position.

Neal was consequently aware of what was going on, so he made it his mission to get to know everything he could about this intruder who was trying to wedge his way in between Peter and himself.  As a result, his focus was more directed towards seeking the intent of his competitor.  Why did he want to be friends with Peter so badly?  Was it in an effort to climb in the office ranks, or was there something more to it?

*******

Eventually, the agent decided to host a party to bring the team together and to celebrate another big win as an important case was officially closed.

Walking through the office, he announced that he had sent a team wide email to invite everyone over to his place on the weekend for a pool party.  Smirking, he added in an aside, “And that includes you Caffrey.”

Since the general consensus was pro the party, Neal grudgingly agreed to attend as well.

With the full guest list intending to show, the agent left the office with a “See you tomorrow then” and he walked out with a smile.

“Are you bringing Elizabeth?”  Neal asked Peter.

“I think she’ll want to go.  Elizabeth loves the beaches so this is the next best thing.”  Peter smiled fondly as he thought about his wife.

“Do you mind giving me a ride?”  Neal broached the transportation subject cautiously.  Even though Peter usually gave him a ride to work, he didn’t want to seem incapable.

Not noticing the extra hesitation, Peter happily agreed.  “I’ll pick you up on our way.”  Turning like he was going to make a teasing comment, Peter looked like he had thought better of it so he turned away smiling at whatever had crossed his mind.

Shaking his head, Neal settled back into his desk so he could finish his last report for the day before going home.

*******

When the time of the party finally arrived, Peter pulled up in front of a nice new apartment complex with a lot of vacancy available signs.  Apparently, the agent had gotten in on the ground floor so he was one of the first tenants which meant the pool was virtually private.

Walking around to the center of the grounds, Peter, Elizabeth, and Neal followed the smell of grilling and the sounds of laughter to find the rest of the team having fun.

“Hey, Peter.  Neal.  And you must be Mrs. Burke?”  The agent greeted them.

“Please, call me Elizabeth.  Peter has told me a lot about you.”  Elizabeth greeted him and started some general conversation.

Continuing in his effort to be pleasant, the agent was all smiles and gallant gestures.  Showing his guest around, he showed them where the towels were if they wanted to swim, the best seats for lounging, and even gave his recommendation as to which snacks to try.  Once they had the tour, he left them to mingle while he continued to flow through his guests and keep his role as the host.

*******

Settling into a chair to watch, Neal didn’t like the situation so he spent some time playing on his phone as the others chatted, played in the pool, or munched on the snacks.

Despite the number of people mingling about, Neal seemed to have an awareness of everything going on.  He winced before one of the team fully lost their grip on a drink that went crashing to the ground, he flinched away from a splash before the water could reach his perch, and he knew exactly where someone was at if he was asked a person’s whereabouts.

After a while, Peter noticed that his social friend wasn’t participating in the fun.  “What is going on Neal?  I thought you would love these sort of things?”

“It depends on the party.”  Neal tried to shrug it off.

“What?  It’s not fun because your swim shorts don’t hide enough to make swapping our processions easy?  Did you flirt with someone and get turned down?  There is nothing wrong with this party, so why aren’t you having any fun?”  Peter pushed.

“First, I could have swapped out any number of things if I had wanted too… people keep losing each other yet alone their stuff.  Second, I haven’t even flirted with anyone.  Third, if I had, they wouldn’t have turned me down.  And finally, there is something wrong, but I haven’t been able to put my finger on it yet…”  He knew who was the problem, but he still didn’t entirely know why.  Then man had lured them to a relatively uninhabited neighborhood, no one was armed to defend themselves, he seemed to have an agenda, but to what end was still something to be figured out.

“Are you sure that what’s wrong, isn’t that no one has dumped you into the pool yet?”  Diana teased.

When Neal gave her a bit of a dirty look, she called on Jones for some help.  Between the two of them, they wrestled Neal to the ground, grabbed his hands and feet, before jointly carrying him over to the pool where they threw him in. 

Clapping to the splash, the rest of the group was enthusiastic to see Neal involved in the festivities. 

Another teammate who was already in the water took it upon themselves to dunk Neal when he started complaining.  “Seriously Neal, no one cares that you got your swimming shorts wet… that is the point!”

Diving down and strongly swimming away, Neal managed to find a safe place to come up where no one was immediately close enough to dunk him again.  “Seriously, did you really have to dump me in with no warning?”  He complained to his friends.  Peeling off his shirt, shoes, and looking around for his sunglasses, he made sure his processions where safely next to his seat before he went back under to get his hair more organized.  With his bangs out of his eyes, he frowned at the smiling team.  “What?”

“You do know how to lighten up.”  Diana teased.

Rolling his eyes, Neal made sure to splash her before she could react too much.  “And that is coming from you Diana?”  He threw her remark back at her.

“Now you did it, Neal.”  Peter smiled and held his hands up to say that he wasn’t getting involved while Diana moved to dive into the pool.

Swimming away, Neal was on the other side of the pool before Diana resurfaced and got her bearings.

“You little twerp you…”  Diana took off swimming and the game began.

“Polo.”  Neal called to the laughter of those watching.

“Marco this Caffrey.”  Diana made a strong dive towards him, but Neal was faster so she was too late by the time she arrived at his location.

“Marco what?”  Neal teased.  Then he shouted “Polo” before diving to a new location.

Round and round they went until Diana gave up.  “You had a head start on me Caffrey.”

Turning the challenge to Peter, Neal teased.  “I had a head start on you, and you still caught up.”

Getting a competitive glint to his eye, Peter decided to give it a try.  “Marco.”  He said as he got into the pool.

Grinning like the game had just taken on a new challenge, Neal called out “Polo” before diving again.

Gambling on the location of other occupants, Peter made a guess based on his instinctual knowledge of Neal.  Moving to intercept Neal, he didn’t catch him, but he did gain some ground.

Upping his game as well, Neal chose to hide behind people, would swim the full length of the pool so Peter would have farther to catch up, or he would pull stunts like dive and change direction to avoid Peter’s attempt at interceptions.

Eventually calling it a draw, the two climbed out of the pool to towel off and relax.

“I think it was easier to catch you on land.”  Peter was breathing harder due to the exercise, but he was smiling at having given Neal a good competition.

“Don’t forget, I walked into that trap and let you catch me.”  Neal teased as he hung the towel around his neck.

Smacking him with his towel, Peter made his sentiments known.  “Hey, I kept up in gathering the evidence to catch you and setting the right trap that you walked into.  Besides, I would have worn you down eventually.”

Giving him his win, Neal didn’t continue the argument.

*******

As the evening progressed and several of the team went home, the agent hosting the party started to get more suspicious to Neal.

Asking for Peter’s opinion on something, he drew the agent away from the rest of the party before pulling a gun out and grabbing Peter as a hostage. 

“You have information I want Burke.  Do you remember that little art fraud case you worked while Caffrey was in jail… the one that brought the directors of the FBI, CIA, and the NSA on a personal visit to see you?”

Paling, Peter obviously remembered while the team watched on helplessly.

“Seriously?  You want to target me for something I don’t know anything about?  All I know is that there was something funny about the art, I reached out to try and figure it out, and the directors reassigned the case without telling me anything.  What could you possibly want to get from that?”  He was baffled.

“That ‘funny’ art, is the key to understanding the Intersect.  It is the key to the primary database the government uses to store everything from the nuclear codes, agents missions and identities, to softer targets like analysts and the families of active agents.  My people and I would like this information because we are trying to revive an organization that I once worked for, a group called The Ring.  If it hadn’t been for those stupid agents getting in our way, we would have taken over the country!”  He ranted.

“I wouldn’t threaten him if I were you.”  Neal calmly stated from his position of observation.

“Yeah, and why not?”  The agent snarled dismissively.

Not saying a word, Neal pulled out a card and held it up beside him.

The shot comes out of nowhere to hit the card at a perfect center mass.  Then Neal pointed at the guy’s chest.

Looking down to see the red light, the guy pulled Peter closer to use him as a shield.  “Based on the angle, your sniper is half a mile away so I can pull this trigger before he shoots me.  Besides, one of your criminal friends would go down for murdering an agent.”  He smugly defended himself.

Unfazed, Neal held his ground while Elizabeth was nervously watching her husband being held at gun point, the team stood around helpless to do anything, and Peter continued to be surprised.

“You’re right.  He is half a mile away, but as the agent tends to be trigger happy, I wouldn’t test him.  Besides, if you push him, he has kill orders for your head.”  He continued to lounge nonchalantly.

Getting mad, the agent called for his back up to reveal themselves.  As they swarmed out heavily armed, he went back to bragging.  “Now you’re outnumbered, and out gunned.  This isn’t going as you planned now is it?”

Shrugging, Neal didn’t react much.  “We don’t need numbers or guns, so…”

Flabbergasted, the agent asked.  “Who are you?”

Stepping forward, Neal bowed slightly.  “Agent Danny Larkin.  NSA guardian of the Intersect, and Peter’s assigned body guard.”

The entire group was shocked as no one saw it coming. 

“You said ‘we,’ who else is around?”  The agent’s voice was starting to show that he was getting a little nervous as he hadn’t expected any opposition.

Pretending to count on his fingers, Neal got a thoughtful expression.  “Two Intersects, two guardians, the guy in the van, the sniper, and full backing from three agencies…”  He stopped pretending to count as that was just too many to tick off on his fingers.  “And one of them is my twin.”

Caught off guard, the agent had been paying too much attention to Neal which allowed for Bryce to sneak up behind him and take him down safely.  “That would be me.”

As some of the villains raised their weapons, the taskforce team came out of hiding to take them down quickly with no shots fired.

Once the smoke had cleared, the remaining White Collar agents stood around stunned.  They had no idea what to say.

Looking at Peter’s shocked expression, Neal quipped.  “What?  So you think the NSA and CIA are going to leave you fending for yourself?”

Finding his voice again, Peter answered.  “I didn’t think I’d warrant a body guard for as little as I know.”

Shrugging, Neal explained.  “I still do other work for my agency, but on a different front than I used to since I actually work in the FBI now.  Most of my career has been task forced with the FBI because it’s dangerous running around out there with my brother’s face.”

Indignant, Bryce muttered.  “Like it’s so safe looking like you out there?”

Glaring at his brother, Neal stared counting again.  “Who got me punched for getting Chuck expelled, who got me shot at and arrested for treason, and whose involvement in this project got me involved…?”

Raising his hands to placate his brother, Bryce tried to calm him down.  “Alright, alright already, point taken.  But, you do have to admit that you’re the reason I got dragged into playing Caffrey the con with you.”

“Hey, at least I get to work with my favorite team which is even worth the stupid jewelry.  Which, by the way, was added to the role due to your idea for the agencies to use the bonds in the first place.”

The twins were somewhere between teasing and arguing, but they got distracted when Chuck muttered. 

“So, this is why the directors don’t want them together for operations.”

Their glaring attention turned on him for a moment before Elizabeth quipped.

“They’re brothers, so sibling rivalry is inevitable… is it worse for identical twins?”  She asked Neal.

Seeing the intent of their friends, Neal and Bryce calmed down to answer them.

Bryce sheepishly answered Chuck.  “Pretty much… unless absolutely necessary.  We can work together fine in the field, it’s just outside of the field that can be problematic…”

Neal shrugged at Elizabeth.  “Your dad is the psychologist… ask him.”

Breaking up the conversation, Casey came in with a growl and started to cuff the perpetrators.  Most of the group followed suit, but Neal took Peter and Elizabeth aside.

Peter had a lot of questions, but didn’t know where to start.

Diving in, Neal started answering them.  “I meant the White Collar team when I said I work with my favorite group.  Peter, except for my brother, you are the closest friend I’ve ever had, and I hope you still see me as your friend, despite the lying.”

Taking the chance, Peter responded.  “I do see you as my friend, but apparently I don’t know you at all.”  He sounded a little hurt.

Sticking out his hand, Neal waited until Peter accepted it to begin.  “Hello, my name is Daniel Tyler Larkin.  I’m from Connecticut where I grew up with my parents, twin brother, and younger sister.  At eighteen, I actually went to college at Princeton where I majored heavily in art.  During my junior year, I was recruited to the NSA and have been an agent for about ten years now.  My work has crossed over with the FBI on a frequent basis, so when my brother’s involvement took me into the Intersect and you got too close, I was suggested to be your body guard.  The whole escaping prison for agent Moreau was to make it more believable for me to work with you.  From there, I don’t actually run around committing crimes, you are my friends, Kate’s death was real, and I am on this assignment until further notice.  If things were to change, I’ll let you know what I can.”

Making the best of an opportune moment, Peter took advantage of their hands being clasped to pull Neal into a hug.  When he released Neal, Peter shook his hand again briefly.  “It’s nice to meet you Daniel.”  While he didn’t say much, his eyes, actions, and obvious emotions said so much more.

“We’re partners Peter, so it’s Danny.”  Neal corrected him.

Elizabeth grabbed Neal into a hug as well.  “Thank you for protecting us Danny.  I’m glad to get to know who you really are.”  Once she pulled back, she returned to her husband’s arms as the three of them walked back to where the rest of the teams were finishing up the work with the scene.

Leaving to go their separate ways, the teams parted knowing they would be working together again.  It wasn’t known when or on what case, only that the villains had better beware.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, reviewing/commenting, leaving kudos, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> I'm back from my trip and working to get settled back in.  Tomorrow I return to my new department and a new schedule which will be interesting.  Next week I will be posting "Twins verses Twins" per request and the collection only has a single one shot at the moment.  The following week my posting will be up to you readers again.  Do you want more twins from this collection, triplets, or my "He Didn't Have to Be" from a prompt about the little twins with their mom Elizabeth and step dad Peter?  Share your vote through review or private message :D


	3. Puzzling Peter

***********

It started out as a normal day. Peter picked Neal up, they road to work discussing various topics, and when they arrived at the office the two friends went their separate ways. Neal stopped at his desk just inside the door, and Peter continued on up to his above.

Taking his seat, he was surprised to hear Neal's voice yawning so clearly despite the distance. Looking down at the office, he saw Neal stretching while one hand politely covered his mouth. Shaking his head, he decided Neal must have been loud for some reason.

Moving on into his work, he didn't pay attention to the mystery of the yawn. Maybe the sound carried uncharacteristically well, or maybe Neal was playing a prank on him, either way, his case files wouldn't solve themselves.

Once he finished a stack of papers, he grabbed his stapler and began putting them together in groups.

After the second time, he realized that he was pressing the stapler down and hearing the puncture and bending crunch typical of the action. What didn't make sense though, was why he was also hearing a 'boop' in Neal's voice.

Repeating the action, he heard the 'boop' again.

Alright, so Neal was playing a prank on him. He wasn't going to give the con satisfaction. Sometimes ignoring the behavior was a better means of discouraging it.

Continuing through his pile, he ignored the increasing tendency for noises to accompany his mundane tasks. It wasn't normal for staplers to 'boop,' for his coffee cup to go 'glug glug' when he got a drink, and his computer certainly didn't dial up.

Getting slightly frustrated, he found the noises distracting, so he started looking for the source. How was Neal pulling it off?

Looking down into the office when the noises occurred, he didn't notice anything off at first. Neal was sitting at his desk working through his own pile of folders. Perhaps he had recordings somehow linked to his office supplies?

Flipping the stapler around, he didn't see anything to cause the noise, but that didn't mean Mozzie hadn't provided some crazy surplus Russian spy thing or another.

Sighing, he was growing annoyed.

Endeavoring to ignore the sounds, he tried to focus on the case file in front of him. It was accounting heavy, so the math would provide a nice distraction... or maybe not. Instead of being quiet, the voice started telling him the answers to his line before he completed balancing the sheet.

"Shut up, Neal." He muttered as he started the line over again.

When the voice beat him through the next line again, he looked up to tell Neal to get back to his own work, only to find that he was still alone in his office.

Standing up to look down towards the floor below, he didn't see Neal sitting at his desk anymore. Grinding his teeth lightly and pursing his lips, he decided Neal must have installed something in his office and was messing with him from one of the conference rooms.

"You have work to do." He grumbled at the air figuring it wouldn't do any good.

"I am doing my work." Came back the jovial response accompanied by the rustling of papers to indicate case files.

"Then get back to your desk and let me do mine." Peter ordered.

There was no response. If Neal knew what was best for him, he would stop his tom-foolery and get back to work. Otherwise, Peter could always assign him every mortgage fraud file in their work load.

Setting down again, Peter went back to work on his files, and for a while, it was back to normal.

Turning in his seat Peter was dismayed to hear an imitation squeak accompany the swivel as he shifted back to his computer.

"Neal!" He barked.

Determined to catch his consultant in the act, he watched him working from his desk below. At least he was back at his desk, but that only increased the mystery. Peter was doing things on purpose to cause the voice to sound, but Neal's lips never moved when the sounds were playing.

"What? Are you a ventriloquist now?" Peter grumbled. It didn't make sense. Neal wasn't typically the one for practical jokes in the office. Well, not beyond stealing quarters to make a point or lifting his wallet for the fun of it. So what was he up to?

Returning to his spot by the window, he watched Neal working for a few moments.

"You're not talking, but yet your voice is still audible..." Unable to figure it out, he turned to do a brief search through his office, but wasn't able to find the speaker.

Giving up, he moved out to the landing and barked, "Neal!" When his consultant jumped and looked up at him questioningly, he did the finger wave silently ordering him up.

Looking puzzled, Neal put his stuff aside and came up giving him a questioning look.

Not answering, Peter indicated the seat acrossed from him and sat down. Interesting, the voice didn't sound.

Waiting a few moments for Neal to sweat it out, he simply stared at him, gave him time to confess to his prank.

"Did you ask me up here to stare at me, or was there a purpose?" Neal finally broke. He was too curious to hold out like he normally would have.

"No, I did not order you up here to stare at you, but I was giving you a chance to explain yourself." Peter frowned at the man.

"For what? I can assure you I haven't committed any crimes..." at Peter's raised eyebrow he finished, "recently." Then he shrugged. "So what would I need to explain?"

"You would need to explain why your voice keeps emanating from somewhere in my office. The sounds keep playing whether you're in the office or not, and speaking or not." Peter was back to grumbling. Neal didn't seem to have a clue what he was talking about.

Frowning, Neal looked at him like he was joking, but then understanding dawned on his face. "Bryce." He said the name with a roll of his eyes before swinging his head to look around the office. "Stop messing with my friend!"

"Bryce?" Peter wondered if that was another part of the joke, or if there was really another person messing with him.

"Yeah, like you stopped messing with my friends?" The voice Peter now identified as Bryce responded.

Questioning back, Neal wondered. "Uh, when did I ever mess with Chuck?" Preparing to defend himself, he didn't know what he was being accused of.

Before Bryce could answer, Peter broke into the conversation. "Whoa, what is going on here?"

Ducking his head and coughing silently, Neal twirled his finger around the room. "Well, based on the situation, I would say that Bryce impersonated me, walked in here sometime since yesterday, and placed some tech around your office to mess with you." Overriding Peter's attempt to question, he continued. "Meet the voice of my younger twin brother... Agent Bryce Larkin."

Blinking, Peter wasn't sure how to respond, so he questioned what he heard. "You have a twin brother?"

"Just wait until he sees us in the same room." Bryce laughed.

"Why would that make a difference?" Peter wondered.

"We're identical." Neal answered.

Speechless at first, Peter was still questioning the whole situation. "Identical?"

Laughing at his expression, Neal pulled out a picture that he had hidden in the back of his wallet and passed it over to Peter.

"You aren't kidding... are you certain this isn't Photoshop?" Peter was wondering yet again if it wasn't all just some elaborate hoax.

"Now you have got to meet him in person, Bryce. He doesn't believe you exist." Neal talked to the air.

"You look insane, Neal." Peter had to comment.

"He always does." Bryce laughed.

"Way to go, Bryce. You just insulted yourself." Neal shook his head at his brother's idiocy.

"Dinner tonight?" Bryce suggested ignoring his brother's insult.

"Are you and El free tonight?" Neal forwarded the question to Peter.

"Uh... I think so?" Peter hedged.

"My place then." Neal gave instructions for them to be at his place before he ordered his brother to tell him where the tech was.

Then he moved about with Peter collecting the clear stickers with tiny black dots of technology. "Are you using Peter to test government prototypes? He wondered.

"I couldn't tell you if I wanted to." Bryce refused to answer for certain, which was an answer in and of itself.

"We've talked about this, my friends aren't your guinea pigs." Neal scolded.

"Like you didn't practice your slight of hand tricks on all of my friends growing up?" Bryce countered.

"Alright, break it up." Peter interceded. "Do you always squabble like this?"

Both answered simultaneously to the contrary, but Peter didn't believe them. "Uh-huh. Well, you aren't proving your statements right now."

Finishing the task, the men managed to find all of the speakers returning peace to Peter's office.

Then walking out with the tech secured, Neal apologized to Peter. "I'm sorry, my brother... well, let's just say he's worse than me when it comes to being annoying."

Although the mystery had cleared up, Peter still had a puzzled expression on his face.

Working seemed fairly normal for the rest of the day, but Peter found his eyes wondering to Neal more often than they had through the morning. He had a secret identical twin brother? That wasn't what he expected to learn. Checking back through some of his files pertaining to Neal, he wondered how he had missed Bryce's existence before. Was it because the man was an agent, or because they were identical? Unable to answer the question, Peter tried to keep his obsession to a minimum so that he could get his official work completed.

When the evening finally came, he clocked out and headed for home with the rest of the agents. Neal had left slightly early with his permission, so the man was probably well into making dinner with his brother.

Riding down with Jones and Diana, the agents asked him why he looked so spacey.

Deflecting from the real reason, Peter shared a few details. "Someone played a prank on me this morning. Planted some new kind of government tech making my stapler go 'boop' and my coffee cup go 'glug glug.' Neal helped me clean it up, but revealed that he knows the agent responsible."

"Anyone interesting?" Diana asked.

Shrugging, Peter knew he was going to be very interesting. "I get the feeling he will be, but so far he's only been a voice."

"Is Neal keeping him secret?" Jones worried. Neal and secrets was never a good thing.

"Up until he decided to mess with me; now El and I are supposed to meet them for dinner." Peter admitted the second part of why his mind was distracted.

"Give us a call if you need rescuing." Diana teased as they got off of the elevator.

Grunting slightly, Peter didn't think that would be necessary, but then he remembered that Bryce was supposed to be more annoying than Neal. "You know what; I just might take you up on that."

Grinning, the other two agents bid him goodnight with the promise to be there if needed, or to pester for answers in the morning.

Waving in return, Peter went to his own car and headed home to get his wife before going to June's.

When the land lady let them through the door, Peter asked her if she had meet Bryce.

"He's a perfectly polite young man. Apparently, being charming runs in the family." She smiled playfully before sending them on up to the loft.

Giggling in anticipation, Elizabeth was excited. "I'm looking forward to this. Can you believe it, two Neal Caffreys?"

Sighing, Peter was still having trouble believing it, but he couldn't argue with what he had heard. "Bryce is supposed to be more annoying than Neal."

"Oh, honey." Slapping him lightly on the shoulder, Elizabeth admonished him for being so negative. "Neal is introducing you to his brother, someone you didn't even know existed as of this morning, so this is big for him. Be nice to them."

Soothing her, Peter promised to be nice before he paused on the landing by the door. Listening, he heard two sets of feet moving about the kitchen and the occasional clang as dishes were moved about with their cooking.

Moving around him, Elizabeth was too eager to see the brothers, so she opened the door and led the way in before Peter could change his mind. "Hello, Neal, Bryce."

Turning to greet them from the kitchen, Neal gave his usual greeting before introducing her to his brother.

"I know who she is, I've been watching the people around you for years." Bryce put on his most charming smile to shake her hand while teasing Neal.

Rolling his eyes, Neal wasn't impressed. "Not everybody works with rogue agents and has to watch for bullets in their backs with every assignment."

"You never know. Look at my work history." Bryce shrugged.

"Peter isn't using me, so stop spying on him." Neal defended his friend and tried to get his brother to ease up.

Holding his hands up, Peter tried to prevent the conversation from escalating. The twins seemed to always be on the verge of breaking into argument. "What do you mean about working with government for years, Neal?"

Smacking his brother up the back side of the head, Neal frowned at him before turning to bow to the Burkes. "Neal Caffrey may be as close as you get to my real name, but my legal name is Daniel Larkin... Agent Daniel Larkin."

Shocked for the second time of the day, Peter swayed slightly as he connected the information. "You're Danny Larkin... the Danny Larkin?"

Smirking, Neal enjoyed telling Peter who he really was, but the full extent of the conversation had to wait until they were seated to eat.

Finishing their preparation, the twins collected the Burkes to the table before sitting down to eat. Talking as they shared the meal, the twins talked about themselves and their work as agents, why they didn't talk about each other with their friends, and what could be expected in the future.

Once the meal ended, Peter realized that he had forgotten to call Jones or Diana, because there was no need to be rescued. He liked Bryce, despite the truth of him being more annoying, and they were on their way to being friends.

Moving to relax on the balcony, Peter commented to Neal. "You shared a lot of secrets today, ones that change everything, so I wonder what tomorrow will bring."

Shrugging, Neal wasn't worried. "The bosses don't want me to intentionally reveal my identity and brother, but if it comes out then so be it."

Settling in to their discussion, the group spent the rest of the evening talking more about what to expect and conjecture about possible secrets yet to be revealed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, choosing to favorite my stories and I, leaving kudos, commenting/reviewing, voting, and following :D
> 
> "Tales of Twins" has two more completed chapters (and many more notes for future adventures down the road) which means two more weeks to vote before we'll be settled on what I post next. Right now we have three votes tallying two for "International Escapades" and one for "Black Sheep of The Family." To note, both of these actually have an angsty side to them with International Escapades being a treasure plot and Black Sheep of The Family being a brothers fic.
> 
> On a more personal front, we lost our hamster Mikko a little over two weeks ago due to his brain tumor. He had been declining for a while and pretty much died on his paws so it was fortunately quick. Then on a more positive note, the local pet store had tons of hamsters needing homes (they're overwhelmed) so we got two tiny babies who were just weaned a little over a week ago. Now Huckleberry and his baby sister Pippin Fleur give us happy distractions for the holidays :D (Note, they do not share a cage... we don't want or need 13 hamsters all at once! ;)


	4. Snail Mail

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As the instigator for this chapter, I want to throw out a nod to Quinis for her help. The picture of Peter 'reading Neal's mail' in her twins series started the idea, her general plot concept created the basis of the chapter, and her conversation starring Mozzie was stolen from our PMs. All I did was turn it into a chapter and fill in the gaps :D

*******

It started about a week after Neal's file landed on his desk.

Peter went to work and found a letter addressed to him on his in box. Glancing it over, he noticed that the envelope was nondescript, the addresses were printed stickers, and the sender was 'anonymous.'

Intrigued, he sat down to look at the letter. It had made it through security so there wasn't anything dangerous and any prints were on file... who knew what the message could contain so taking precautions was always best. Opening it, his preliminary glance showed that the letter was typed in a plain font on standard printing paper.

Based on how much effort was being taken to hide the identity of the sender, he expected to find a threat in the message. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was just someone wanting to know why he served in law enforcement. The letter gave off the feeling of someone needing to be reassured of something, while also trying to remain unknown.

Making caution his approach, Peter decided to respond to his anonymous correspondent with a note about what justice meant to him.

When another letter arrived a week later, the tradition began. For nine years, minus one year of silence, they exchanged letters once a week.

*******

Peter was amused and annoyed. Why did Diana place her side of the bet to make Mozzie come into the office for a day?

Hiding in his office, Peter watched as Mozzie tried to sneak from the files to Neal's desk... in an open room... full of trained FBI agents no less. Needless to say, a probie spooked him by directly addressing him with a question. Stuttering an answer, Mozzie gave up stealth for a quick scurry to his destination. Dropping to the floor, he disappeared behind Neal's desk to be invisible until he emerged again.

Looking at Neal in amusement, Peter saw his annoyed glance in return. Shrugging his shoulders, Peter conveyed the message that it wasn't his bright idea to torture Mozzie, thereby Neal, this way.

Frowning at the lack of support, Neal turned his glare onto Diana as she came into range.

Shaking his head, Peter looked forward to the day's end as much as anyone... and it was still early!

*******

As Peter was leaving for lunch, he passed Jones standing outside of the conference room. Pausing to see what he was observing, he overheard some of the odd conversation that was going on inside.

"Mozzie, what are you doing underneath the table?"

"I'm gathering intelligence on the enemy, Neal!"

"Oh-kay. Jones wants to know if we're meant to feed you?"

"I'm fine. I brought supplies. Percy might like a crumbly cheese though."

"You brought Percy?!"

When Jones turned to give him a questioning look, Peter held up his hands. "I'm not even going to ask." Walking away, he was going to enjoy a relaxing lunch with his wife instead of puzzling over the mysteries of Mozzie.

*******

Returning from lunch, Peter walked back into his office to find the latest anonymous letter on his desk. Settling in to see what it would contain, he ignored how Mozzie was watching him... a bad choice.

Before he got halfway through, there was a sudden burst of noise as Mozzie literally drug Neal into his office. As soon as the door was shut, he got to know why.

"He's reading your mail!" Mozzie bellowed.

Peter blinked. He wasn't reading Neal's mail so he didn't know what this was about... or if he should start reading Neal's mail to see what was so interesting.

"No, he doesn't' Mozz." Neal looked apologetically at Peter now that he knew what was causing Mozzie to react.

"Yes he does. Look at this letter! It looks just like the mail you send out!" Mozzie was still reacting, but no one was listening anymore.

Neal took the envelope and saw that the date was recent... too recent to believe. Turning to Peter in astonishment, he didn't know what to say. "Peter..."

Defending himself as he didn't know what was going on, Peter explained. "It's anonymous, so I don't know who it is, but he has sent me letters weekly for eight out of the nine years that I've known you. The first one arrived the same week I go you're case... I've theorized that it might be you, but that doesn't feel right. He is very similar to you, but you know me, so why keep up the charade?"

Looking like he had seen a ghost and was at a loss for words, Neal dropped the envelope back on the desk.

Peter had never seen such a lost look on Neal's face before.

"He's... He's supposed to be dead... I got the notice... arranged the funeral from prison... how?"

Seeing that Neal was emotionally compromised by the situation and wouldn't work anyway, Peter decided to send him home early.

*******

For the rest of the afternoon, Peter researched to see who this mysterious person was. When every angle of pursuit failed, he opted to send a letter requesting information.

*******

On Monday, Peter was anxiously watching for Neal to enter the office. The kid had moped and refused to talk all weekend so he was worried.

When Neal finally walked in, he was dressed in a G-man suit with a gun and badge displayed. Holding up Peter's letter, the agent commented. "You told me to explain this."

Before Peter or anyone could come up with a remark, Neal came in with the unexpected company of Mozzie.

"Noah!"

"Larkin."

"Winters."

"Neal?"

Names were thrown around like sentences. Neal was shocked, the agent and Mozzie greeted each other, while Peter questioned it all.

"Conference room!" Peter ordered. With the number of people standing in front of him, they would fit better there.

Pulling the stunned Neal along, Mozzie seemed oddly comfortable all of the sudden.

"You knew?" Neal questioned him. Then he caught up further. "Why did he call you Winters?"

"All in due time Neal." Mozzie refused to answer.

"How did you figure out that I'm connected to Neal?" The agent asked Peter.

While Mozzie coughed behind him, Peter realized that the reveal was his idea. "I think Mozzie can explain it better than anyone." He raised his brow at Mozzie's glare.

Understanding Peter's action, Mozzie directed it to the other agent. "What? So, you can yank your friend around to put his family back together, but I have to watch Peter reading your letter knowing that Neal misses you?"

Putting his hand up in defense, the agent tried to smooth the situation over. "Okay, I get your point. But do you know how much danger and trouble you just put my brother in? I've been protecting him by being dead!"

They reached the conference room, but not before the entire office heard the warning.

*******

Once the door was closed, it was Neal's turn. "What, so the CIA, and... I'm guessing NSA, all get to know, but the FBI gets left in the dark? Are Peter and I incapable of handling things?" He fumed.

Before the agent could respond, Peter jumped in. "'The FBI...' 'Peter and I?' What are you saying Neal?"

Clamping his jaw shut and opening his eyes wider, Neal realized his mistake.

Running through what he understood, Peter started through who they were. "You're Larkin and CIA... as in the 'dead' agent Bryce Larkin?" At Bryce's nod he continued. "Neal called you Noah and you said he's your brother, so that's your real name?"

"Correct." Bryce simply stated.

Turning to Mozzie, he continued. "Bryce called you Winters and Neal said you're NSA. Are you Theo Winters?"

Smiling and tipping his finger in a salute at Peter, he signaled that he was right.

Finishing up with Neal, he confronted his partner. "As for you..."

The man seemed to squirm a little bit.

"You are brother to Bryce Larkin and just spoke of the FBI like an agent." Watching for a moment, Peter was trying to adjust to what his instinct said was right. "You're Danny Larkin... an FBI agent and White Collar legend... aren't you?"

Unsure of how people would react, Neal cautiously nodded.

"You're an agent? Since when?" Bryce exploded.

Returning fire, Neal responded. "You might have known if you didn't fall off the face of the earth when you joined the CIA! The rare times you gave me a means of contacting you, I don't even know if you got the messages! Come on, you can keep in steady touch with my friend for nine years, but not me, your brother, for even one year?"

Understanding Neal's feelings, Peter felt bad that he hadn't shared his letters with him before. Then he realized that the problem began before he was even involved so he only would have brought this on sooner.

Realizing what Neal meant, Bryce felt he had to explain. "My field is dangerous with high stakes and a lot of people, including rogue agents, who want to kill me. By writing Peter, I could know if he was a threat to you, or if he was merely pursuing you as his job. I know I should have been in better contact, but I was already juggling my official work and helping an off grid agent protect his tech from three of our biggest enemies... two turned out to be connected, but still. Work was busy and dangerous, so when I had the chance to reach out, I refrained wanting you kept safe."

"So, I'm safer not knowing who might be looking for my face? Better off not even knowing that my brother is alive?" Taking a deep breath, he had one more point to make. "By not contacting me, you left me not knowing what was going on. I couldn't even be on guard for your enemies."

Gasping, everyone in the room feared what that could entail.

"They didn't...!" Bryce got a threatening look.

"Don't worry about it, Bryce. I'm an agent too and trained to be on alert at all times... I'm just saying it would be nice to know about any particular threats." He didn't say that he hadn't been attacked, just that he was cautiously watchful for the possibility of attack.

Peter opened his mouth to ask Neal, but the glare he received told him to drop it. Neal had already upset his brother enough, so Peter would take it up with him later.

Paling, Bryce realized he could have done more harm than good. "I'm sorry, Neal."

Grabbing his brother in a bear hug, Neal refused to let go as he reassured himself that his brother was okay. "Just, don't do it again!"

Hugging his brother back, Bryce relished the opportunity to be with him again. It had been years since anyone knew who he was, yet alone since someone knew him so well. His brother was the only person who could read him at a glance.

Smiling, Peter nodded his thanks to Mozzie for arranging this. The man had melted into the background, but Peter remembered his presence while the brothers hugged.

When the twins stepped back to stand beside each other and Mozzie was watching from the side, Peter made a quick decision. "You wouldn't all be free for dinner, would you?"

Neal rolled his eyes with a smile. "What is it with you and celebrating everything with dinner?" He teasingly questioned.

Enjoying the return of their banter, Peter smiled along with him. "What is wrong with that? You've got to eat anyway, this way you can tell El, and my home is more relaxed than the office for having private conversations. We can all talk at dinner and then you and your brother can disappear to catch up."

"Well, I'm curious to get to know Neal's friends better." Bryce agreed.

"It would be interesting to get to talk to Mrs. Suit as an agent instead of as my cover. I suppose you won't be so paranoid about my influencing her now?" Mozzie teased.

Smirking despite himself, Peter laughed softly. "Oh, I will worry about your influence all the more now. I have heard a lot of stories about you over the years." He remarked.

"That just leaves lunch to practice switching places..." Neal seemed to be off in his own world.

Clearing his throat, Peter got his attention. "Switching places?"

Grinning evilly, Neal answered. "Yeah, we are identical twins and El doesn't know that... who can resist such fun as making her try to guess which is which? Since you want us over for dinner, there is only the time between lunch and then to practice on the team."

Trying to glare the idea out of his head, Peter realized he was failing when Neal kept on smiling.

"I'm an agent too Peter, and not actually a criminal. Although we can't tell the rest of the team, you know now. Besides, it's not like I'm dropping cover, we are simply dressing alike while he hangs out in the office for a few hours."

Making one last dodge attempt, Peter brought up the fact that they worked for the FBI and not some place where they could play games. "Besides, he isn't an FBI employee." He added to try and strengthen his excuse.

Since Peter had set himself up, Neal drove his goal home. "First, you let Mozzie be here last week and that was as a supposed criminal while Bryce is an agent. Second, he is an agent, so he has higher clearance than any of us. Finally, he doesn't have to touch the files as he can simply entertain himself on his phone, or do his own paper work to really mess with them."

Giving it up as a lost cause, Peter put up his hands. "Fine. But we'll have to lay down some rules. First, you let me know when Bryce is around so I know to be prepared for the possibility of switches or any of his enemies following. Second, there is no switching in the field or during big cases as work has to come first. Third, there is only switching around our team if you don't want to spread the word that there are two of you... at least to keep a distance from the rumors as that is probably already spreading anyway. Finally, you have to keep a differentiator on you at all times in the office. That way we can at least keep straight where one or the others is located, even if we don't always know which is which."

Agreeing, both twins decided to comply with the rules. Then they decided to insist on some of their own.

"First, you don't get to forewarn Elizabeth as we want to surprise her." Neal said.

"Second, there is no telling anyone else that I am around if I don't want you to. Sometimes I have to lay low for a while." Bryce insisted.

"Third, don't go telling other people if you have figured us out. Let us have our fun even if you come to know how to tell us apart." Neal requested.

"Finally, you don't go forewarning your team that we are going to switch places. We are rusty so we would like an advantage." Bryce specified.

"Wait, there is a way to tell you apart?" Peter focused on that as it would save him a lot of headaches.

Frowning, Neal refused to answer. "You have to figure it out yourself Peter. Also, you haven't promised..."

"Alright, I agree to do all that you have asked. Come on, how do I tell you two apart?" He asked again.

"Easy, I am me and he is him." Bryce quipped helpfully.

"Thanks." Peter sarcastically replied accompanied by their laughter.

*******

Breaking up their meeting, Peter led the brothers and Mozzie back out into the room.

Taking his leave, Mozzie ducked out before anyone could approach him for conversation. He had provided support for Neal, and brought Bryce back. It was time to return to his cover before it was blown any further.

Having expected his departure, the others focused on the office.

"Attention, everybody." Peter called as he walked them up to the landing where they could all be seen clearly. Once the room was focused, he introduced the situation briefly. "Neal has a younger twin brother, Noah. He is an agent, but can't tell us his field name or details about his work as he would like to keep Neal safely distant from it. However, you can expect him to come around from time to time now that he is able to be in the picture again. Since they haven't seen each other in several years, Noah will be hanging around for the day while Neal works on cold cases. Feel free to talk to him, but don't push for answers as he has his reasons for being secretive."

With the team aware of the situation, he dismissed everyone to return to their work.

For the rest of the morning, the team could be seen occasionally asking Neal or Noah a question while Neal slowly progressed through his files.

*******

After lunch, the twins returned in two white shirts with two pairs of black slacks so as to be dressed alike. It was the most complete they could dress while also being identical based on the limited matching wardrobe available.

Smirking at the groans, gasps, and snorts, the twins enjoyed the team's reactions. Some weren't happy to see the twins playing up their relation, others were surprised to see them as they hadn't been present in the morning to be introduced, and the rest couldn't suppress their amusement as they realized that pranks around the office were going to reach a new level with the twins around.

Relaxing to see the team accept Noah so well, Peter watched from above and occasionally tried to see if he could find a definable difference between the two.

When the end of the day arrived and no one had a sure clue which was which, although there were still bets running amuck anyway, the twins decided to settle it for the day.

Flipping on the fedora he had left on his desk, Neal revealed which twin he was.

Pointing to a tiny safety pin on his collar, Bryce showed the way they could be told apart. "Peter made us agree to wear a means of telling us apart any time we should switch in the office. Today, I had a safety pin on my shirt as my fussy brother refused to put anything through his shirt."

Seeing a light bulb, Peter realized that one possible way to tell them apart was Neal's tendency of being protective of his clothes. So, if the difference was something stuck through their clothes, then that would likely be Bryce... except they would now switch it up in an effort to keep ahead of their audience.

*******

Heading home for dinner, Peter gave the twins a ride.

When they got to the Burkes, Peter got out and quickly walked up to the door. He had forewarned Elizabeth that he was brining company, but he had kept his promise not to tell her about the twins so he wanted to see her reaction.

Entering, Peter heard that Mozzie had already arrived and was walking Elizabeth to the door so he could also watch her reaction.

Gasping, Elizabeth was shocked to see not only one under dressed Neal, but two, walk in. "What... who... there are two of you?"

Bowing, the twins didn't introduce themselves separately, but together.

"We are Neal and Noah Caffrey." One said.

"Agents Danny and Bryce Larkin, at your service." The other said.

Before Elizabeth could ask, Peter explained. "Noah, who is also Bryce, has been the anonymous person writing me for the last nine years. The other agent here made sure Neal saw the latest one on Friday and we had the explanations today. As for why they aren't telling which is which, they want to have some fun switching places as they haven't seen each other in years." Sighing at the missing pin, he knew it had been removed. "I see you removed the safety pin so none of us know which is which."

"I know." Mozzie grinned. When Peter glared at him lightly, he shrugged. "What? I have worked with both agents for years, I'm a trained agent, and after a while you have to learn which one you're talking to if you don't want to slip up."

Neal almost asked him if he knew he was an agent all along, but he decided that such potentially revealing questions should wait until later.

"So you're an agent too?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes." Mozzie smiled. He knew what was coming, but he was going to appreciate it anyway.

"Then why all of the 'suit' and paranoid avoidance of agents, you spend so much time doing everything you can to avoid being on the radar when you are already on the radar anyway?" She questioned. It was something that was obvious and the others had all wondered too.

"My role is to play a criminal, I'm an undercover agent who prefers to remain in the shadows, and I have been on my own since I was a young child so I am used to avoiding notice." He explained easily.

"Did you know that Neal was an agent?" She asked.

Resisting the urge to react, Neal listened closely. He hadn't known that Mozz was an agent, had Mozz known about him?

Glancing at the twins, Mozzie smiled. "I was assigned to work a case with an agent Larkin only to be surprised to find myself facing Neal... or rather not Neal. Needless to say, I researched the name thoroughly when the case was through and discovered the other agent Larkin."

When there was a knock on the door, the conversation ended as they all frowned. No one else was expected.

Opening the door, Peter was surprised to see that both Jones and Diana had invited themselves over.

"Sorry to intrude, but we had some things to ask and knew you wouldn't talk in the office." Jones explained.

"You dropped those bombs about danger and being dead... we wanted to make sure everything was alright and let you know we would like to help if you will let us." Diana added.

Inviting them to stay, Elizabeth had enough food for all. Agreeing, Peter and the others trusted them and more back up would help them to keep each other safe.

Through the meal, they told the other agents some of the general information about the three being agents, which agencies they were associated with, and promised that they would be notified when trouble was brewing to help keep the situation under control.

A combination of relieved and stunned, Jones and Diana hadn't seen that coming. Still, they adjusted to the situation quickly enough and were even creating jokes by the end of the meal.

As they cleaned up, Peter managed to get a brief aside with Neal. "Did your brother's enemies ever hurt you?" He needed to know, but didn't know why. It wasn't like he would feel any better knowing someone had hurt his partner.

Knowing it wouldn't help, but understanding that Peter still felt the need to know, Neal nodded. "I lived and am fine, but they did catch up to me once."

Closing his eyes in fear of what could have happened. Peter froze in place for a moment.

As the two were hidden from those in the front room, Neal gave him a moment as he responded. "They just beat me up before a team rescued me. It hurt, but there was no permanent damage."

"Is there anything I should know about?" Peter questioned if he had any other injuries to share.

"No. I tend to avoid my enemies well enough to keep out of trouble... for the most part. There have been some close calls, but nothing to worry about." Neal reassured him.

Nodding, Peter motioned for them to join the rest of the group as they chatted their evening away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, leaving kudos, reviewing/commenting, choosing to favorite, and following :D  
> The voting continues with two for "Black Sheep of the Family" and three for "International Escapades." There is one more week left to this particular collection so cast your vote :D


	5. The Competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own White Collar, Chuck, or American Ninja Warrior. Like Jones, I have seen bits and pieces of the show, but never a full episode (the byproduct of the break room at work) so I Googled information and checked out the show's website to fill in the more technical details. Who can resist the idea of Neal and Bryce competing in something like this?

***********

Agents Hughes and Burke exchanged puzzled looks. They didn't understand why this agent from DC was bringing them their next case.

They were to be placing a set of twins undercover in a competition where they would be pitted against other twins... and how where they supposed to be doing that without any twins?

Despite the obvious problem, the visiting agent didn't seem to be worried. Instead of explaining where he planned to find a set of twins, he explained the competition they were going undercover in.

When he was done, Peter stood on the landing to call the team together for the morning meeting while Hughes helped the visitor to get settled into the conference room.

As the agents were updated on the case there were several expressions of surprise and confusion. How were they going to pull this one off?

"Are Jones and I going to be playing these roles?" Diana asked.

Jones shook his head. "That wouldn't work. See the qualifying specifications?" He pointed to one of the key points in the cover role.

"You have got to be kidding me?" Neal exclaimed as he read over the case description.

"What? We are all surprised to see that we have a twin case with no twins." Peter said. No one understood why they were chosen for the case, so why was Neal reacting so vehemently?

"Not only do we need twins, but the parts get more complicated as they need to be identical." Jones lamented.

When Neal then turned to the agent visiting from DC, they suddenly got some answers.

"Seriously, you want my brother and I to go undercover and reveal that there are two of us? He has been 'dead' to his black ops team and I have been playing a con in a completely different field to avoid that reveal. Our lives depend on the world not knowing we are twin agents! Are you trying to kill us?" To say that he was fuming would be an understatement.

"Excuse us." The agent looked to the room. "Agent Larkin, follow me." He ordered Neal.

Ignoring the dropped jaws around the room, Neal faced the agent in a stare down as he glared at the man. Then, he stiffly moved to follow him into Peter's office.

*******

In spite of their efforts to hear what was being said, the team didn't know anything of what was being discussed.

With their eaves dropping a failure, they chose to express their shock to each other instead.

Peter stared at the door blankly as he spoke mindlessly. "Neal... is... an agent?"

"What... just happened here?!" Hughes was as flabbergasted as the rest of the room.

"How did we miss that?" Jones wanted to know.

"I'm not sure which is more interesting... That we missed his rank as an agent, or that we missed that there were two of them?" Diana mused.

Some of the female members of the team seemed to be rather entranced by the idea of Neal not only being an agent, but by there being two of them.

"Can you imagine a double date with them?" One giggled.

"Oh, he was dreamy before, but now...?" Another stared off dreamily.

"Please!" Another agent rolled her eyes. "So Neal turns out to be an agent and it's not five minutes before you're drooling over him?"

The males were more interested in other aspects of the the news.

"Is that why he was so hard to catch?" One theorized.

"What do you mean?" Another questioned him.

"He was able to get away from the FBI so easily because he is not only an agent himself, but rather two agents. Secretly, he was in the position of having the advantage because he knew how the FBI works while those agents in pursuit were oblivious to the details of who they were chasing." He liked his theory and was interested in expanding upon it.

Ignoring the conversations around him, Peter continued to stare at the door. "There are two of them... they are both agents... and he never told me?" He was still in his own state of shock, which was worse than the others because he was the closest to the man.

Putting her hand on his shoulder, Diana tried to get him to understand based on what had been shared. "He said that their very lives depend on their secrecy, Peter. As much as he trusts you, he is going to put the life of his brother first and foremost."

Shuddering, Peter was still struggling to deal with such a huge secret dangling right under his nose. "I could have been helping them if I knew."

This time Hughes took the lead. "Peter. We'll figure out what is going on here and you'll get some answers. In the meanwhile, you need to focus on this case as it sounds like they will be depending on you now. They aren't back yet, so take this time to get focused." He advised Peter.

Nodding, Peter started to pull himself together. Hughes had a good point. Sure, Neal hadn't told him anything before, but with the information out, they could talk about it later. He needed to get his focus for the case, it sounded like Neal's life would depend on it.

*******

Once the room was more composed, Neal walked back in with the other agent, but to everyone's surprise, they had another person in tow.

Gesturing for the room at large, but focusing on Peter, Neal started the introductions. "I suppose I should introduce us. My official name is Danny Larkin and this is my younger twin Bryce Larkin. We are both agents with me a white collar FBI and him a black ops CIA. Due to certain situations, we are in danger if we give too much information to anyone, so neither of us have ever told anyone about the other. Since we are to go undercover together, it appears that we each get to tell our teams."

Extending his hand to Peter, Bryce greeted him specifically. "Hello agent Burke. My brother has told me a lot about you so it's an honor to finally get to meet you."

Accepting it, Peter shook his hand and greeted him back. "Uh, hi. I didn't know that you exist before today, but it's a pleasure to meet you anyway."

Breaking up the greetings, the visiting agent redirected the conversation back to the operation.

For the rest of the morning, the team talked through the details of the upcoming mission and made plans for how to accomplish what needed to be done.

*******

When it came time for them to break for lunch, Neal snagged Peter and hauled him away with him.

Walking towards a nearby restaurant for lunch, Neal started to explain some of the basic details for him. "Peter, I know you were really shocked at the reveal earlier..."

Snorting, Peter gave him a look. "'Shocked' is an understatement, Neal."

"Yeah, well... the lives of my entire family depends on us keeping as many details secret as possible. We grew up in wit-sec and went into government work. Basically, we can't even begin to tally how many rogue agents want us dead..." Neal paused as he had never shared any of that information before. Stopping on the edge of the sidewalk, he looked at Peter. "You're the first person I have ever told anything to."

Sighing, Peter knew the day was going rather weird. "Thanks Neal. By the way, does this mean I caught you... or you let me?"

Enjoying the humorous reprieve, Neal laughed. "Uh... how about we leave it that I was ordered to let you catch me, but you are the only agent who has ever kept me on my toes."

"Breaking it to me easy?" Peter teased.

"Something like that." Neal smirked back. "You do know that I wish I could have told you sooner?"

"I thought that might be the case..." In response to Neal's look he added. "After I got past being upset you didn't tell me so I could at least have a chance to be helpful for you."

"My brother hasn't told his friend either." Neal seemed to make the random comment.

"'Friend...' as in singular?" Peter questioned.

"We... _really_ don't trust people. So for us to have a friend that we trust like we do you two... is saying something. Everyone else... well, they could be considered friends in various ways, but it's not the same." Neal tried to explain.

Looking at him, Peter was doubtful. "So you trust me, and no one else? What about Mozzie, El, and the team?"

Shrugging, Neal explained. "They mostly fall under the family and team classifications. Mozzie is actually a criminal though..."

"Oh, because someone had to be?" Peter smiled at him.

Relieved Peter was accepting things so well; Neal took him to lunch so they could talk a little more.

*******

Meanwhile back at the office, Bryce paced around and watched the door. After a little while, he was startled to hear the gasps behind him.

Turning around to face the team, he tried to explain the basics quickly. "Uh, hi guys. To make it brief... Yes, I died and was revived... again. No, I wasn't allowed to tell you anything because there are so many people trying to kill my family that it was decided for us to remain hidden. Who is 'us?' Me and my older twin brother... identical twin brother. Why did the bosses decide to reveal that there are two of us? Because this case takes identical twins and we were chosen to take the roles."

Staring wide eyed at him, the team took a moment to react.

"Okay... that has been rattling around in your brain for a bit hasn't it?" Chuck said.

"It shows?" Bryce asked. He was obviously stressed a little bit and that was even with his effort to hide it. These were friends, so it wasn't dangerous for him to show weakness, but it made the chink in his armor obvious.

"Yeah, it shows. You're acting like you did back in college whenever you had something that was getting to you." He stood quietly watching his friend for a moment. "She didn't let you tell anyone?"

"Technically, I wasn't even supposed to tell my brother than I am alive... but being twins, it was best to give him a heads up." Bryce admitted.

The team and the room around them all went silent. He wasn't even allowed to tell his brother he was alive?

For the White Collar team, they suddenly had a new appreciation for some of the stuff Neal had to deal with, but that still left the question as to how Neal knew about his brother.

Fortunately, Sarah voiced the curious question. "How did you tell your brother that you were alive?"

"Huh mmm, that. Um, you know, the usual... break the rules and tell him anyway." He looked awkwardly away from them before whipping his head back to face Chuck square in the eyes. "You have no idea how much I wanted to tell you... but, between the amount of time it took... everything that was going on for you guys, and the directive not to tell you..." In the last moment he diverted from telling them about his rescue. They didn't want to know about that.

Unfortunately, Chuck saw through just as much as he usually did. "And how long did it take for you to be rescued?"

"Six months..." Bryce tried to say it as quickly and quietly as he could so that no one would hear.

Pushing for more answers, Chuck asked. "And what kind of shape were you in when you were found?"

"...The usual." He tried to keep his secret again.

Gasping, the team had various reactions. He had been nearly dead, for six months?

"How close to death were you?" Chuck wasn't letting up.

"Technically... all the way... I'm a valuable asset you know... it would be a waste to leave me dead if they could help it." He tried to shrug it off.

Chuck and the team felt guilty. They failed to save him and it resulted in him having to go through something horrible, even though they didn't know all of what.

Listening from the background, the White Collar team found themselves understanding Neal's secrecy more and more. He had to go for an extended period of time thinking his little brother was dead... repeatedly? Of course he didn't want to reveal that he had a brother, didn't he already go through enough as it was?

Retreating to a conference room, Bryce took the team to an area where they could have more privacy. Even if they weren't fond of Bryce, the team had questions for him that couldn't be discussed in front of the FBI.

*******

When lunch was done, the teams met back in the conference room to discuss the case.

Apparently, Neal and Bryce were to go undercover into an underground competition similar to the television show Ninja Warrior.

"Hey, I have seen a little of that." Jones piped up. "Typically, the competitors run through a series of challenges that are designed to test their skills as Ninjas. It's interesting to watch as some are able to make it all the way through, some don't make it past the first challenge, and a lot of people wind up somewhere in between." He laughed a little bit. "I don't think I could make it all the way through, but I bet if anyone could, it would be one of them."

Ignoring the interruption, the lead agent continued his description. "Hrumph, yes. The competition is generally based off of the popular show Ninja Warrior, but this is an underground version. They designed the competition off of the show, but added a few variables of their own. Instead of single competitors, they have twins take turns with the challenges. Basically, one twin takes the first challenge, if they complete it, then the second twin takes the next. By alternating competitors, there is the added intrigue to see if one twin is stronger than the other and if they are strong enough to complete the course."

"So, you're saying that I will have to go compete like a ninja?" Neal wasn't thrilled.

On his other side, Bryce seemed to be excited. His inner nerd was showing. "Come on Neal, we get to compete like ninjas! This is going to be like when we were kids and had just watched a ninja movie!"

Rolling his eyes, Neal shook his head. "Yes, this is us after a ninja movie. You are excited to play ninja, and I am being drug along for the ride." He rolled his head over to look at his brother. "Seriously, bro, I was always more interested in painting the scenes than bounding around like you."

In response, Bryce rolled his head in a mirror image. "Uh huh, that is why you created costumes and suggested using wrapping paper rolls as weapons..."

Clearing his throat, Peter loved the scene as the twins bickered. It was revealing their childhood, relationship, and into who they were behind the facades they showed the world. Still, he needed them to put their focus onto the case. "Focus guys. We have an operation to arrange here people."

With the group's focus back on topic, they got down to business.

*******

As they were leaving for the day, the visiting agent brought up one last topic. "So we have everything settled except for two things. Who are your supporters going to be?"

"Peter."

"Chuck."

The responses were obvious and expected. When they were made, the entire room smiled and enjoyed the feeling of expected comradery. Of course Neal would chose Peter while Bryce would choose Chuck... who would expect any other outcome?

With a smile, Hughes called an end to the day and sent the twins home for the night along with the rest of the team.

Having finished the day, the teams divided up to make up for lost time. Neal went with Peter as he often did with the promise that his brother would meet him at his place later. Meanwhile, Bryce took off with Chuck for a while as they had quite a bit left to discuss.

*******

In the morning, the teams went to work on the final pieces to getting the twins ready for their undercover operation.

When the time came, Neal, Bryce, Peter, and Chuck left to enter their roles for the operation while the remainder of the teams moved into position in order to provide backup and the take down personnel should they be lucky enough to get there evidence so soon.

Walking into the underground facility, Bryce looked around the room and grinned. There were stadiums lining the side for viewers, a walkway for the supporters to keep their eyes on their people, the challenges for the competitors, and then the area for the judges to view the situation.

"This is so cool!" Bryce practically bounced on his feet.

Rolling his eyes, Neal wasn't so enthused. "Yeah and it is all legit because they have the facility underground, they charge ridiculously high entrance fees with the promise that the winners take the pot, and those who win aren't seen again. 'This is so cool!'" He mocked his brother.

"Now, now boys." Peter chided. "Do you always bicker like this?"

Turning to each other, the twins shrugged.

"A lot of the time, but not all of the time." Neal was honest in admitting that they had a bit of sibling rivalry going.

"Eh, it's fun." Bryce wasn't embarrassed. "I get to mess with my brother when we compete or bicker so it's more fun than playing nice."

That was when Peter realized he had the nicer of the two twins. "So, you're the trouble maker, huh?"

Nodding his head, Neal was happy to point fingers at his brother.

Bumping him with his shoulder, Bryce took slight offence to that. "Hey, like you're such an angel?"

"We weren't talking about me." Neal smirked.

Dropping the conversation for the moment, the group approached the judges. After paying the entrance fee, a man approached them with a test to see how they learned about the competition.

"A friend of mine challenged us. He and his brother competed last month and made it over halfway before they fell into the water. This is just the first chance that my brother and I have been able to get around our work schedule to beat them."

"Who is your friend?"

"Adalius and his brother Alcott."

"And how do you know Adalius?"

"We work together at the accounting firm in DC."

"You, what do you do?" He questioned Neal.

"I'm an artist in New York City."

With a few more questions, the man decided they weren't going to be a threat to his operation. Allowing them through, he directed them to the locker rooms where they could stow their gear.

Changing into the clothes they intended to compete in, the brothers had decided to play up Bryce's love of Ninjas. Wearing matching black bottoms and nerdy t-shirts, they differentiated themselves with the color headbands that they wore to keep the sweat out of their eyes. Neal wore a white Bandana tied around his brow while Bryce wore a black one. It differentiated which twin was which by denoting the color of operations they worked in.

Getting into the lineup, the group waited to take their turn.

While they watched, the contestants would alternate which one would take the challenge. First, one twin would take a challenge, and then they would pass the lead onto the other twin who would take the next challenge.

Wincing, they all sympathized when one of the competitors slipped, bounced off the hard edge, and splashed into the water unconscious. Since the competition lacked safety measures like mats, it was a wonder he didn't accidentally kill himself. Diving in to save his brother, the other twin jumped in and pulled him up before he could drown.

Stepping up as the next two in line, Neal and Bryce did a quick game of rock, paper, and scissors to determine who would start off the competition.

Victorious, Neal took the first round. Standing on the platform, he did a few quick stretches while he evaluated the challenge and encouraged the audience to cheer him on.

Taking the first leap, he lightly jumped from board to board alternating which direction he was turned. Completing the challenge with ease, Neal landed lightly on the second platform and comically bowed to the audience who ate it up.

With a flourish, he directed for Bryce to take the next stage.

Giving his brother a high five, Bryce mimicked his stance of doing a few warm up moves before starting into the competition.

Jumping out to a wheel, he caught the first one on the top side and rode it as it swung him around and downwards. Keeping his grip, he repositioned himself to swing over to the next wheel without falling. Making the transition, he reached the next wheel which was tilted so as to place him on the bottom. Its challenge was to get to the height for the next wheel without getting spun backwards by the wheel he was on. Instead of messing with it, he simply reached further to grab the third wheel. Achieving the stretch, he made it as well. After a few more wheels, he reached the end of the challenge and took his bow.

Continuing to alternate, the twins made it through the remaining challenges. When they had achieved the first round of the competition, they took a sweaty bow to the audience who cheered wildly.

At the end of the day, they were given the time and place for the next round before being dismissed.

*******

Compiling the summary of the day into their reports, the twins settled back at Neal's desk before walking them up to Peter.

With their work finished for the day, the two went home to clean up and prepare for the next round.

After they left, the office exploded in comments.

"Dibs for partnering with Neal on the next case!" One of the agents had his hand up like that would make a difference on the next assignment.

Snorting, his neighbor was amused. "And this is coming from the guy who tried to get out of working with him the last time you were assigned to team up? What did you say... 'I don't like working with a con, he can't be trusted.'"

"Yeah, like you haven't made plenty of comments about him over the years. Who was it that refused to go on vacation for six months out of fear that he might raid their desk?" The first agent countered back.

"Hey, that was back when he first started here. Your comment was just last week!" He defended himself.

"Let's be real, if he was going to be working with either of you... he would choose me!" Another agent happened to be in hearing range and decided to get in on the fun.

"Ha, and why would he choose to work with you?" The second agent threw back at him.

"Why wouldn't he? I can afford to buy him his fancy coffees, and... oh, I have connections to hook him up with a vintage hat maker!" When they didn't look impressed, he continued. "What? At least we get along. Besides, it would be great to close cases so quickly..." He drifted off imagining the rewards that he would get for a high closure rate.

With a derisive and dismissive glance, the first agents weren't impressed. One said, "So you're only interested in working with him for your advancement?"

"Aren't you?" He questioned.

Before the others could come up with an answer that didn't seem hypocritical, Jones interceded.

"You all know that he primarily only works with Peter, right? So, all of this jockeying for position doesn't do you any good." He nipped their competition in the bud.

Then another group of agents changed the direction of the conversation.

"Can you imagine what it would be like to watch two of them in an undercover operation? I mean, just double the art that Neal puts into his undercover rolls."

"Not just that." Another agent interjected. "Could you imagine those situations where things go wrong? The bad guys think that they took Neal out, only to have the other one walk in to scare them silly! Oh, the fun they could have messing with the villains nerves..." He smiled as he imagined terrified expressions and cracks about walking ghosts.

"Kind of like having a second one in reserve? I don't want to see them get hurt, but it would be nice to have their help when we have a heavy case load."

Reacting to the possible implication of his previous words, the agent tried to describe what he meant better. "Oh, I don't want to see them get hurt either, but you know the nature of the beast. Working in the field does have its hazards, so what if Neal did get hurt and he was essential to the case? Instead of scrambling, we could simply have his brother provide a means of transitioning the situation until he could return or until the case was finished. That seems to be the only logical reason why they would need to switch places. Still, it's not them getting hurt that amuses me... it's the potential for how the attackers might react." Looking at his coworkers, he shrugged. "Call it watching too much TV or reading too many stories, but I find the concept of messing with the bad guys an entertaining idea in theory."

Rolling their eyes, the others understood what he was aiming at.

"I just hope they are recording their challenges in the competition..." The agent who stated that hadn't been previously involved in the conversation so his input seemed to come out of nowhere. When everyone looked at him puzzled, he explained how it carried into the conversation. "What? I actually watch 'Ninja Warrior' and I like ninja movies so it would be interesting to see."

With that, the conversations broke up into smaller groups as the agents got back to work. Some continued to rank the team by those most likely to get partnered with Neal, others imagined the havoc twins could create in the field, while yet others chatted on the subject of ninjas. In essence, they found the other people interested in the same aspects of the conversation and simply conversed amongst themselves on a smaller scale.

*******

Over the following week, Neal and Bryce continued to attend each of the underground competitions while Peter and Chuck played the roles of their support to provide backup.

Advancing through the stages, they started into the second round of challenges.

Like the first series, they had a time limit that kept them on their toes with no means of taking any kind of a real break. That was what made it dangerous. They were rushed, seriously challenged, and even the tiniest misstep would send them crashing down. Since the competitions weren't legal, no one enforced any safety standards which meant the boys could easily get hurt or even killed if anything went wrong. So, although some of the challenges looked easy, like running up a wall, if they had the slightest misstep, it could mean a fall that would result in breaks, sprains, or bruises at the very least.

Fortunately, the boy's training and field experience made them exceptional athletes.

Peter watched as Neal climbed up the Spider Walk like he was born doing it. "I wonder if he ever did that to hide from us?" He thought. Laughing to himself, he could imagine the team pursuing Neal only to lose him because he ran through a door and scaled the walls to hover over their heads. With the image planted in his mind, he had yet another question to ask.

Then they moved on to the third stage. Their most grueling level yet, and a challenge so hard that there wasn't a time limit. Moving away from the speed and agility they were being tested on their strength and stamina. No one had beaten the challenge in a while so the audience watched with bated breath.

Watching as they worked their way through, Chuck wondered how many of those skills were used in college... Shaking his head, he doubted that Bryce was climbing along the top of the bookshelves by his finger tips like the Cliff Hanger. However, he could see Bryce entering or escaping a building by climbing along a ledge by his fingers and toes. Smiling, he looked forward to a Gotcha rematch now that they could take it too the ultimate level.

With the main levels of the competition beat, the twins had to wait for the final competition to be arranged as it wasn't needed very often. Only a few contestants occasionally managed to make it this far...

*******

Throwing the rubber band ball back and forth, the twins lounged in the FBI office as they waited for their assignment to make progress.

"Uh, this is so boring." Bryce complained.

"At least it is a little bit of a break from those grueling challenges." Neal commented.

"Huh, not like you train like this all of the time anyway." Bryce wasn't listening to that.

Smirking, Neal gave him the point while Peter stole the ball out of mid air. "Come on you two. Are your reports finished for the day?" He went boss on them.

"Yes, Peter." Neal said while Bryce said. "Yes sir."

Tossing the ball back to Neal, Peter teased him. "Why can't you learn for your younger brother?"

Glaring, Neal got a mischievous look that had Peter regretting his comment. "Yes sir. I can be like my brother..."

Blinking while he tried to see what Neal meant, Peter thought about the implications. "Why do I feel like that was a threat?"

Getting all innocent, Neal smiled pleasantly. "Oh, I would never threaten an agent."

Snickering, Bryce thought it was hilarious watching the exchange. When Peter turned towards him, Bryce held up his hands and tried to keep out of the situation. "Hey, I'm just an amused bystander. Whatever you have gotten yourself into is your problem."

"Thanks. Thanks a lot." Peter snarked while he dropped a pile of cold cases on the desk for Neal to do. "There is something to keep you busy, Neal." He smiled in triumph as he walked back up to his office.

Having lost the battle for the moment, Neal started to divide the pile into two parts.

"What are you doing?" Bryce questioned while he pulled out his phone.

"Dividing the work out."

"Why?" Bryce asked as he started to play a game.

"You aren't going to help me are you... You're simply going to sit there and play games while I solve cold cases aren't you?" Neal tried to give the puppy dog expression to convince his brother to help him.

"Hey, like I told Peter, you're on your own with this. You're the one who challenged your boss."

"He is my partner... my orders come from DC." Neal muttered while he opened the first file. Since Bryce wasn't going to help, he might as well get started.

*******

Finally the call came through and the directions were given for the final challenge.

Heading for the training room, Neal and Bryce took a final test run. They had to prepare for the last challenge in the morning.

Looking up at the tower, the twins were each concerned for the other. This stage of the competition was the hardest and most dangerous of all. The goal was to overcome each level of the challenge in a timely fashion in order to reach the top before the buzzer rang. If they failed, the rope was cut sending whichever one was competing in a plunge to their death. Neither of the twins wanted to be the one left behind, nor did they want to die so graphically in front of the other.

Yanking each other into a hug, the brothers started their way up. Letting Neal take the first challenge, Bryce hoped to save the hardest ones for himself.

Watching from below, Peter and Chuck fought to keep their cool while they watched their best friends face death. Each time one of the twins looked like they were struggling, they held their breath until they were making progress again. Although they knew the twins were going to make a show of barely succeeding to win, it still terrified them each time they gave that performance.

Reaching the top, the twins hit the button together to claim kanzenseiha, or complete domination, over the competition.

Having proven themselves, the twins moved to claim total victory and the pot of the entrance money. This was the point of the entire sting, to enter the winners circle to see what happened to those who had achieved the level before them. Lifting the cup over their heads, they turned to show off to each angle of the audience. Bowing and soaking up the crowd's enthusiasm, they milked it for all it was worth.

Once the public aspect was completed, they were ushered into a back area for 'winner's pictures' to 'be displayed on the winner's wall.' Since there wasn't such a wall, the twins knew something was about to happen. Entering the back room, they quickly found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun... literally. Apparently, the people who backed the challenge killed the winners before disposing of their bodies in the ocean in an effort to keep the pot for themselves.

With Peter and Chuck catching everything on record, the twins moved to defend themselves with quick combat moves to disarm their attackers. While they took down the leaders in the back, the teams rushed in to handle the situation in the main area where there were more people to contend with.

After a few hours to organize who needed to be arrested or fined and the collecting of the evidence, the team retired to the office to complete their paperwork and celebrate a win.

*******

Snagging Neal this round, Peter announced his plans. "This time I am treating for the meal. I've already told El and she has the food set up. You're bringing your brother and his friends too."

Looking over to his brother with a smile, Neal shrugged. "I'm game if you all are."

Bryce shrugged as well. "Why not? I'm curious about these friends you're always talking about."

"It's a party then... of sorts." Peter shrugged. "Impromptu and casual... but still, kind of like a party."

Inviting his team along for the fun, Peter led the group out for the evening with the agreement to all meet up at his place.

Arriving at the Burkes, Bryce looked around the comfortable home. "It's a nice place you have here, Peter."

"Thanks, and your welcome to stop by anytime... as long as you don't bring too much trouble along with you." Peter tagged on. "You're brother told me some of the trouble you've managed to get into in the past." He teased.

"So much for keeping out of it..." Neal smirked.

"This is how you want to get me back? Just because I wouldn't help you with your work?" He shook his head at his brother before turning to Peter. "Okay, so you want to play Agent Burke... Game on Peter, game on!"

"It was nice knowing you, Peter." Chuck laughed as he saluted Peter with his drink.

"Don't think your safe Chuck... you are friends with my brother after all." Neal warned.

Squinting his eyes at Neal, Chuck sized him up. "I take that challenge... apparently we have the CIA versus the FBI; Black Ops verses White Collar. To the victor go the spoils!" He finished the challenge in a toast.

Raising their drinks, both teams joined in on the action. "To the victor goes the spoils, let the competition begin."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading, leaving kudos, reviewing/commenting, voting, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> For those of you who've enjoyed this series, this ending is only temporary. There aren't anymore completed chapters at the moment, but I do have several more ideas to write when time and inspiration allow.
> 
> The voting for this round ends today. We have two for "Black Sheep of the Family" and four for International Escapades." Per your requests, next week I'll start posting "International Escapades." To note though, "International Escapades" isn't so much an amusing tale as an action/adventure and angst with a finish of hurt/comfort. Anyway, hope you all come back for the next adventure :D

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, reviewing, leaving kudos, following, and choosing to favorite :D
> 
> I'm noting here: I don't plan on taking prompts and don't guarantee to write any that may be shared. However, if there is something that you would like to see, keep it clean, and I will take it into consideration as a storyline or plot filler for this or other stories.


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